[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

Lush, I couldn't agree with you more.

If Tolkien were alive to micro-manage Peter Jackson's movie, it would not improve matters. It is quite obvious that Rowling in the Harry Potter films even went so far as to give line readings, specifically to the actors who played Vernon Dursley and Molly Weasley, with horrid results. I enjoyed both films, but the writer's presence has not been beneficial, no, no, no, not at all.

Art of any kind is a living thing, and you have to let it go and choose its own life so-to-speak, understanding the media in which you are working. A writer just doesn't understand film.

Even the question 'can a book like the Lord of the Rings be captured on film' misses the point. If one copies an oil painting into water color, one can make it look like a poor copy of the oil painting. But then you miss all the strengths and qualities of water color.

Man-of-the-Wold said it best: you can only judge the films in relation to other films.

One is not capturing the book, but creating a separate work in which the flavor and characteristics depicted in the book can be given play.

-Maril

PS: and on the subject of judging the films, I'd say the FOTR was brilliant as a movie and TTT was weak.